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Eyer earns 250th win

For 18 seasons now, John Eyer has led the Emmaus High School softball program through a lot of successful seasons. In 2000, Eyer took the team to its only state championship and he’s guided it through ups and downs in every season since.

The ups have well outweighed the downs, to the point where Eyer recently celebrated his 250th win as the Emmaus coach.

The team is experiencing a resurgence this season as it plays in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference playoffs, looking for its first conference championship since 2001.

Eyer, whose passion for the game and for coaching hasn’t diminished, holds an all-time record of 253-149. The most recent milestone win came against Whitehall, when Emmaus downed the Lady Zephyrs 2-0 late in the regular season.

Eyer has repeatedly pointed to this year’s team as being one of the teams that has brought the most fun to his coaching career. After finishing 8-12 overall last season and losing a number of important senior players to graduation, there were definite question marks coming into 2017.

This year’s team has gone 19-3 so far, surprising many with its success. Eyer believes it’s a special group of players and he’s glad this was the group to take him across the 250-win plateau.

“For me to get 250 is really great, and that this is the group of girls that I did it with,” Eyer said after a playoff win over Stroudsburg. “There’s something special about this group. They have no quit. They have a lot of drive and they’re just fun to be around.”

In looking back over the years, Eyer says that he has enjoyed a number of great memories as the coach at Emmaus. Amy Oswald, one of his favorite players, joined Eyer’s coaching staff a few years ago, and having her around helped to make win number 250 special.

“There’s so many memories from that, said Eyer. “What’s really neat is Amy was playing when I got my 100th win and now she’s here coaching for my 250th, so that’s kind of cool. I have a lot of memories, and great memories.”

Oswald enjoys the fact that she has gotten to see Eyer’s coaching through different situations and at different points in their lives.

“It was just fun to be a part of something like that,” said Oswald. “I was just thinking back to it the other day when he got his 250th.

“To be a part of the two things with a different perspective is really neat. You feel something different when you’re on the coaching side of it from the playing side of it. Overall though, I just feel so great for him. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more than him.”